Saving time and resources

Got Extra Produce? Sonoma and Marin County Gleaners

Farm To Pantry. FTP gleans wherever there is healthy, fresh produce to be harvested in Sonoma County. You may also drop produce off in Healdsburg, Forestville, Sebastopol and Santa Rosa. Click here for details. How does it work? Volunteers receive an email from us when there is an opportunity in their area, typically once a week for two to three hours. There is no obligation except to RSVP and to let us know as soon as possible if plans change. Volunteers supply their own gloves, waterproof shoes or boots and transportation to a carpool site. Carpools currently meet in Healdsburg and Sebastopol. To join our gleaning team or to volunteer your farm, garden or property, please contact: gleaning@farmtopantry.org

Petaluma Bounty: Please bring fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods to a Petaluma Bounty Hunters Collection Site. Our volunteer drivers will make sure it gets to those who need it most by delivering it to one of our local food pantry partners, PEP Housing sites (low-income senior communities), or other low-income community centers. Want to help? Next volunteer training, Saturday, August 16, 2014, 10am, followed by a potluck at 12pm. Bring a dish to share and your own plate and utensils. Please RSVP to Martin at bountyhunters@petalumabounty.org or 707 364-4866.

Marin Organic: Our Gleaning Program takes advantage of crops that have grown too big, or that otherwise wouldn’t be profitable for the farmer to take to market. We partner with the Marin/San Francisco Food Bank to distribute food, and have a long history of donating to community organizations. Become a part of this collaborative effort to alleviate hunger with locally grown food. Join the glean team here!

CropMobster Community Exchange: CropMobster links communities and individuals in-need with local farmers, producers and food purveyors who need a hand or have excess food to sell or donate. Based in Sebastopol, CA and currently focused on four Bay Area Counties – Sonoma, Marin, Alameda and San Francisco, listings include Deals, Donations, Gleanings, Wanted, Free, Events, Trade, Land and CrowdFund.

Redwood Empire Food Bank: Now on Brickway north of Airway Boulevard, REFB accepts produce and packaged food donations Monday – Friday, 8am-4pm.. Small amounts can be brought to the office; large amounts should be driven around back to the loading dock.

About this blog

This blog is about all things green – philosophies, strategies, practices and events. Topics run the gauntlet with particular emphasis on personal choice, time management and local angles. Everyone is welcome to respond and propose new threads, especially newbies, hardcore greenies and naysayers – provided they mind their manners.

About The Blogger

Portia Sinnott, aka the Green Mentor, writes on eco-initiatives and all things green. She is Co-Founder and Executive Director of LITE Initiatives, a Sonoma County non-profit that promotes a wide variety of practical skills needed to live more in tune with the environment. Founded as Car-Lite in 2000, LITE’s most prominent program is Community Bikes, the bike repair collaborative on west Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa. Other programs are Car-Lite, Zero Waste Sonoma County, Eat-Lite and Living Green. Recent projects include the 2014 Waste Less Food Series plus twenty-two years of clothing swap promotions and production.

Self-employed for more then 32 years, Portia runs an environmental consultancy committed to the principles of sustainability. Recent projects include three collaborative Zero Waste web content development projects for the USEPA. She co-authored a 2010 UN Habitat Program book,”Solid Waste In The World Cities“, writes articles on Reuse and Repair and other relevant topics for national publication and serves as the editor of the Northern California Recycling Association.